This blog is written by a journalist based in Mumbai who writes about cities, the environment, developmental issues, the media, women and many other subjects.The title 'ulti khopdi' is a Hindi phrase referring to someone who likes to look at things from the other side.

Sunday, August 02, 2015

Hushed voices

Can a woman who complains about being sexually harassed by her boss
actually succeed in getting justice? This is at the heart of the
controversy, furiously discussed in the media, after the governing
council of The Energy Research Institute (TERI) announced that it had
decided on a successor to its current head, R.K. Pachauri.

Pachauri has been embroiled in a sexual harassment case after a
29-year-old researcher at TERI filed a complaint with the Internal
Complaints Committee (ICC) against him. The ICC upheld her complaint but
the matter did not end there. Pachauri managed a stay on its ruling by
moving the Industrial Disputes Tribunal and eventually even managed to
get permission to resume work at TERI. Despite the serious charges, he
was not asked to step down but allowed to take leave. Even today, he
continues in his position and will only handover when his replacement
takes over.

What lesson can women who are harassed by powerful men draw from this?
One, that even if their organisation has the mandatory ICC and they take
courage into their hands to file a complaint, a favourable ruling is
not enough. While the ruling of the ICC can be questioned and
challenged, as has been done by Pachauri, there is a moral dimension
that the organisation has to take on board in such instances because the
complainant is usually powerless while the accused is powerful. If the
status quo continues, it is the complainant who will crumble, not the
accused. Unfortunately, the governing council of TERI has sidestepped
this by not acknowledging the ICC’s ruling.

Also, although both have access to the law, it is the powerful that are
better placed to use, and even manipulate, the law. This is the story of
the Indian justice system. We see it played out repeatedly. A
depressing illustration of this is in the data released by the National
Law University about people on death row in India. The startling
statistics tell us the ugly story of how the law functions. Based on
interviews with convicts condemned to death, the researchers found that
75 per cent of them belonged to lower and backward castes, were
extremely poor, or were from religious minorities. In fact, 94 per cent
of those awarded the death penalty for terror related cases were either
Dalits or from religious minorities. We also know that the majority of
undertrials in our jails fall into similar categories.

Does this mean that only the poor and the marginalised are criminals in
our society? Do the rich and the powerful not commit any crimes? What
this data tells us is that even if the latter commit crimes, they know
how to work the system to their advantage. The others are either unable
to do so because they do not have the resources to get able legal help,
or are marked because they belong to a particular religious minority and
thus are labeled even before being tried.

Apply this to sexual harassment cases. Union Human Resource Development
minister Smriti Irani recently stated that between April 2014 and March
2015, 75 sexual harassment cases had been registered in higher
educational institutes. Of these 27, including the TERI case, were in
Delhi.

These cases are just the tip of the iceberg. For every case reported,
there must be literally scores that are either dismissed as frivolous,
or never reported. In innumerable instances, women prefer to quit a job
rather than taking on the challenge of pursuing the charge of sexual
harassment. And they can hardly be blamed given that the process can
break a person.

Vrinda Grover, the feisty human rights lawyer, makes an important point
about the process of getting justice in such cases when she says, “From
investigation to prosecution to trial, the entire system works overtime
to subvert justice. At each stage the investigation is compromised.
Evidence is not taken on record. Eventually, when the prosecution fails
to prove the case due to shoddy and complicit investigation, the loud
chorus of false cases begins.”

So the Pachauri case illustrates several crucial issues around sexual
harassment. One, it is imperative that both men and women are made aware
of what constitutes sexual harassment as laid down in the law. Two,
that the system for seeking justice needs to be in place, such as the
mandatory ICCs. These must not be token. They must have credibility so
that victims of sexual harassment feel confident to approach them or the
police.

And finally, when the harasser is a powerful individual, the woman will
need support to survive the process of following through on her
complaint as the decks are heavily stacked against her. Here the media,
including social media, and civil society can play a role in building up
moral pressure on organisations.

Yet, all of this will not be enough if we do not change the way our
criminal justice system works. Only if that happens can women who are
sexually harassed hope that there is a light at the end of a very dark
tunnel.

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My profile

Journalist, columnist, writer based in Mumbai. Author of "Rediscovering Dharavi: Stories from Asia's largest slum" (Penguin, 2000). Worked with The Hindu, Times of India, Indian Express and Himmat Weekly.
Other books include "Whose News? The Media and Women's Issues" edited with Ammu Joseph (published by Sage 1994/2006), "Terror Counter-Terror: Women Speak Out" edited with Ammu Joesph (published by Kali for Women, 2003) and "Missing: Half the Story, Journalism as if Gender Matters" (published by Zubaan, 2010).
Regular columns in The Hindu, Sunday Magazine and on The Hoot (www.thehoot.org).